Another new twist is that the University is now a Tacoma landlord. The Pacific Avenue side of campus has ground-floor space for retailers. Among the first tenants are the University Book Store, Starbucks, Subway and Taco del Mar.

One sure sign of neighborhood regeneration--Starbucks is now open in commercial space on Pacific.

"Pacific Avenue could be as dead as a tomb," warns Brawley. But with the UWT campus, the federal courthouse and the Washington State History Museum lining Pacific, retail activity should flourish. "We're going to see all the retail space fill up in a year or so," says Butchart. "It is already transforming the district."

Renting out retail space is symbolic of the UWT mission--not being an ivory tower enclave, but serving as a vital part of the community as it educates "placebound" students at the junior, senior and graduate levels.

Since UWT opened its doors in rented quarters in 1990, "We are absolutely meeting this mission," says Dean Carwein. The average age of the UWT student is 32, and a majority of the students work as well as attend classes.

The campus has already met its enrollment targets. "When we move, we will be 200 students over capacity," warns Carwein. "We may have faculty in temporary offices the day we move in."

Even though these are heady days for UWT, Carwein is not shy about the future. By 2011, there could be 9,300 full-time students at the campus. In the next 25 years, Carwein sees the campus growing up the hill to fill its planned 46-acre site.

One hundred years from now she see a campus of 20,000 students with dormitories and Ph.D. programs. "It will be a four-year institution with a statewide draw, a truly full-service university with some active research programs."

City officials are overjoyed with the project. "It will not be displacing or destroying the past. It will be respectful of it," Michael Sullivan, Tacoma's cultural resources manager, told the press when the project began. Bringing a world-class university to the area can only help in Tacoma's rebirth. "Access to a state university hasn't been real easy for us here," Sullivan noted.

In late July, workers were putting the finishing touches on the UWT library and beginning to lay concrete for the campus plaza.

It's a giant step for a once-sleeping giant. "Tacoma used to be a place you went through on your way to someplace else," says Butchart, who once lived in Seattle but now calls Tacoma home. He confesses that he was more interested in teaching at UW Bothell than at UW Tacoma when both campuses opened. But a one-day visit to Tacoma changed his mind. "It's a gritty place that has decided it won't become another Oakland," he says.

He sees Tacoma as again the city of destiny. "The naysayers are going to have a hard time 10 years from now."


A Time of Sharing: UW Bothell Will Grow with New Community College
Return to the Beginning of "Living in History"

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